Russia’s hope revealed in Bakhmut battle

Region has been battered for more than five months

BAKHMUT, Ukraine – Russian soldiers pummeling a city in eastern Ukraine with artillery are slowly edging closer in their attempt to seize Bakhmut, which has remained in Ukrainian hands during the eight-month war despite Moscow’s goal of capturing the entire Donbas region bordering Russia.

While much of the fighting in the last month has unfolded in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, the battle heating up around Bakhmut demonstrates Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire for visible gains following weeks of clear setbacks in Ukraine.

Taking Bakhmut would rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province. Pro-Moscow separatists have controlled part of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province since 2014.

Before invading Ukraine, Putin recognized the independence of the Russian-backed separatists’ self-proclaimed republics. Last month, he illegally annexed Donetsk, Luhansk and two other provinces that Russian forces occupied or mostly occupied.

Russia has battered Bakhmut with rockets for more than five months. The ground assault accelerated after its troops forced the Ukrainians to withdraw from Luhansk in July. The line of contact is now on the city’s outskirts. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military company, are reported to be leading the charge.

Russia’s prolonged drive for Bakhmut exposes Moscow’s “craziness,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a nightly address to the nation this week.

The shelling killed at least three people between Wednesday and Thursday, according to local authorities. Four more died between Thursday and Friday in the Donetsk region, the province’s Ukrainian governor reported as Russian troops press their attacks on Bakhmut and Avdiivka, a small city to the south that also remains under Ukrainian control.

Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said the civilian population was suffering in more ways with the region becoming an active war zone.

“Civilians who remain in the region live in constant fear without heating and electricity,” Kyrylenko said in televised remarks. “Their enemy is not only Russian cannons but also the cold.”

While in the city this week, journalists from The Associated Press saw burned-out cars, destroyed buildings and people struggling to survive amid a cacophony of constant shelling. Bakhmut has been without electricity or water for a month, and residents worry about heating their homes as temperatures drop.